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Thanks for visiting Consumerist.com. As of October 2017, Consumerist is no longer producing new content, but feel free to browse through our archives. Here you can find 12 years worth of articles on everything from how to avoid dodgy scams to writing an effective complaint letter. Check out some of our greatest hits below, explore the categories listed on the left-hand side of the page, or head to CR.org for ratings, reviews, and consumer news.

IRS phone scams, where the perpetrators call up victims and demand that overdue taxes that they don’t owe be paid by prepaid debit cards, are cruel schemes that vacuum millions of dollars out of the pockets of people who don’t know any better. The only way they could be worse would be if they actually endangered victims’ safety while wasting law enforcement time and taxpayer money. They’ve figured out how to do this.

You may be familiar with SWATting, a prank that consists of calling emergency services and reporting an armed and dangerous criminal at the target’s address. The goal is to prompt local law enforcement to send their Special Weapons and Tactics Teams to raid the person’s home. This is especially hilariousif the target is broadcasting live online at the time.

When you combine these two blights on humanity, you get what happened to a family in Colorado Springs this week: scammers frustrated that their target wouldn’t pay up called emergency services to make their threat of imminent arrest for not paying back taxes more realistic. Police surrounded the target’s house while his 20-year-old daughter was home alone.

Twin calls from the scammers to 911 variously said that someone inside was threatening people with a gun, and that there were armed men outside of the house asking for money. When the house phone rang, the daughter said, “this guy answered in a really weird accent and he said that my dad was under arrest.”

Eventually, the family and local police straightened out the situation, and now the FBI is on the case of finding the scammers. Fortunately, no one sent any money, and no one was hurt during a police raid.

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